First time here? Welcome and thank you for visiting.

This page is an overview of the issues that our group, Albion Bridge Stewards, is working on. Throughout this website, you’ll find more details, links to articles in the press, videos of public meetings, and more.

The big picture

The California Department of Transportation has numerous projects in various stages of planning. Some are needed and important.

But many others are unnecessary and destructive—environmentally, economically, and historically.

Our group, Albion Bridge Stewards, is working to preserve one of the most valuable resources on the Mendocino Coast: the beautiful, winding ribbon that is Highway 1. This rural road traverses some of the most beautiful coastal scenery in the world. On one side of the highway are the dramatic cliffs of the California National Monument. On the other side are unique coastal marine terraces—vivid examples of our planet’s history. And along both sides are myriad species of plants and animals, many of which are threatened or endangered.

Highway 1 provides a front-row seat to all of this. As such, it’s part of the economic engine of the Mendocino County, a region where tourism is replacing diminishing logging and fishing industries. And it’s the primary artery for the thousands of local residents who rely on it to access jobs, shopping, medical care, and more.

A variety of laws and regulations are designed to protect our coast, ranging from the California Coastal Act to the local coastal plans created on the county level. But laws and regulations are only effective if they’re enforced. Unfortunately, local and state governmental bodies are failing in their duty, falling under the steamroller of Caltrans, the fourth largest agency in California—and an agency that contributes more than $1 million each year to the California Coastal Commission as part of a cozy “interagency agreement.”

Welcome to Albion

Albion, California is a small town located eight miles south of the town of Mendocino. Albion’s section of Highway 1 winds past sprawling ranches, past a protected nature preserve, and across two bridges, one of them a state and national historic landmark.

Caltrans has (bad) plans for all of it. Working from south to north:

• Navarro Ridge “Safety Project”— extremely destructive widening project that will carve more than 14,000 cubic yards of soil from protected marine terraces (video). Update: Despite our appeals to the Coastal Commission, this project was approved and completed in 2024. And as we warned in the above-linked video, the winter of 2024–25 brought rains that caused significant slides in the graded areas, requiring expensive repairs and even more traffic delays.
• Salmon Creek Bridge Replacement Project — proposal to replace a perfectly sound bridge that includes plans to essentially strip mine a riparian area to remove lead contamination created by years of Caltrans painting projects
• Albion River Bridge Rehabilitation/Replacement Project — proposal to replace the historic and iconic Albion River Bridge (questions and answers, additional details, video, and independent engineer’s report)

Learn more and get involved

We encourage you to explore the rest of this website to learn more about Caltrans’ destructive and unnecessary plans for Highway 1. We welcome you to contact us for more information, and we greatly appreciate donations that help to support our work.

Together, we can save this beautiful portion of Highway 1.